Film Study: The Schematic Back-and-Forth Between Both Coaching Staffs Still Made This Year's Ohio State-Penn State Matchup Memorable

The anticipation for last weekend's tilt between Ohio State and Penn State was expected to be one of the season's marquee matchups, but only one side lived up to its side of the bargain. Without James Franklin and Drew Allar, the visitors from Happy Valley entered on a four-game losing streak and left with a fifth.

But although the Buckeyes shifted into a gear rarely seen this season after halftime, resulting in a 38-14 final score, the game still provided an entertaining watch when examining the all-22. Both staffs clearly spent an inordinate amount of time preparing for this contest, debuting new alignments and concepts meant to expose the weaker spots in each other's tendencies.

Here's what we go over in this week's video breakdown:

• Andy Kotelnicki went extra-heavy and repeatedly found the edges against Matt Patricia's 'Penny' front
• Winning second down proved more important than third when Penn State had the ball
• Mirror images from last season's matchup between these programs
• Using motion to get Jim Knowles' defense into a predictable call

Click the header photo above to watch the video, or head straight to YouTube.